Saturday's news in under 2 minutes.

1. Approximately seven people have died, and five people have been wounded, in a shooting spree that began at a Santa Monica residence in Los Angeles – and then moved to a college filled with students. The suspect was shot and killed by police at Santa Monica College.

2. Anna Bligh, the former Queensland premier, has been diagnosed with cancer. Ms Bligh announced yesterday that she has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. You can read more of Mamamia’s coverage here.

3. Ariel Castro – the man accused of kidnapping and holding Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – has been indicted on 139 charges of rape and 177 counts of kidnapping, among multiple counts of gross sexual imposition. Castro is reportedly planning to plead not guilty.

4. The Guardian and The Washington post have this week reported that since 9/11, America’s National Security Agency have been using a range of electronic surveillance to monitor calls and online activity of millions of US citizens. Fairfax has reported that “Australians are likely to have been caught up in the NSA surveillance program”.

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6. Prince Philip underwent exploratory surgery on his stomach on Thursday evening, and News Ltd reports that his recovery is “progressing satisfactorily”.

7. Fairfax reports that North and South Korea have agreed to engage in weekend talks, in the interest of “mending ties”. The meeting is unexpected, as past months have seen rising tensions – and nuclear threats – between the two countries.

8. A pregnant American actress – Shannon Guess Richardson – has been charged with mailing threatening communications to the president, after she told the FBI that her husband had sent ricin (a highly toxic protein) laced letters to Barack Obama.